OK, its Friday night and its been a l-o-n-g week. I have an RBL. It was ordered within minutes, literally, of the offer being made. I ordered the standard gun, it cost me exactly $US 2554.00 up front, paid in full. I received a call that it was ready to ship shortly after the 4th of July. I have posted [Rabbit actually; Thank you(!), Jack] pictures of the gun. I have shot it .. at the pattern board first, it met my expectations .. at targets, ditto .. at dove in the rain opening day and the day after, the shooter made a few errors, but the gun had no faults. The season pretty much played out just that way. What's more to say? Does that make me a groupie? I have a coupla or three other guns, but no others from CSMC. I have to date perhaps a thousand rounds thru the RBL. It has not failed to fire, eject, open, or anything else. I really wanted to kill the first few dove shot at with it, but it was W. TX and the birds were wary and it was windy .. yeah, right! I missed some, that's all. The gun is as well regulated as anything I have ever owned and I enjoy shooting it.
The mystery part of the deal is no mystery at all. For me, its American, it is fun to shoot, it is a twenty gauge, it weighs under 6.5 pounds, it has a ROUND action [RBL, remember?] making it easy to carry, it in some ways resembles an SKB, arguably the better Japanese 20, it was slightly more expensive than a USED BSS 20 in excellent condition, but it has by any comparison drop dead nice wood and other desirable features, remember the action profile? OK, I quit. And please no one take offense, it is not intended to be read as anything but what it says .. no more, no less. It's an attempt at an honest answer to the question.
Nothing 'special' at all in some senses and then again IT IS TOO! There are, in fact, some very nice features with metal choices, choke treatments, finish .. the off-gold color that some object to on the trigger is not there for it color. Decide for yourself if it suites any need you may have or perceive to have. I bought the one I have to shoot and I am trying to do just that as time and opportunity permit. Do I care that it didn't resemble the photographs in every exact detail, e.g., engraving on the action balls and bbl.? NO, I don't. But, hey, I still like the SKB model 100 20ga. that I purchased in 1966 for $154. I bought a Chevy fleetside P/U a year later with a six, limited slip dif, A/C, HD cooling & suspention, etc. for $2563 turn key, inclusive of tax, title & lisc. I can actually remember that, so buying an RBL prolly makes me like a round earther who has gone & run off the edge .. but the free fall allows me to enjoy what minutes and moments I can garner playing with it, on targets or afield. Will there be hard landing ahead, could I sell it for more than I paid for it? Who cares?
"Not I.", said the blind man.
Again, no disrespect intended to anyone. I'll take it to South America this coming July and give it a real test then. Dove season here ended on Halloween ;-)
